This paper uses the most recent federal data to compare broad measures of public school spending in New York and other states--and to point to likely explanations for the differences. As of 2014-15, New York led all states with PreK-12 spending of $21,206 per pupil--86 percent above the US average, according to Census Bureau data. The school spending gap between New York and the national average has widened considerably over the past 20 years. This trend accelerated during the Great Recession, when state and local tax revenues were plummeting across the country. From 2007-08 to 2014-15, New York's per-pupil spending increased 24 percent; more than double the national post-recession average. New York's public elementary and secondary schools spent about $59 billion to educate 2.6 million pupils in 2014-15, which was exceeded only in California. New York has nearly 700 local school districts--the fourth most of any state. But census data show that the administrative costs associated with a large number of districts is not a major factor driving the difference in spending. New York's exceptionally high school spending is driven mainly by instructional salaries and benefits--which, at $14,769 per pupil, were 114 percent above the national average of $6,903 in 2014-15. New York's per-pupil spending in this category--which measures total compensation only for staff interacting directly with pupils in the classroom--was greater than the total PreK-12 spending of 42 other states. Even New York's lowest-spending school system spent 6.4 percent more per pupil than the national average. At the other extreme, 213 New York districts spent at least twice the U.S. average.